[Viral agents in patients with infectious processes of the central nervous system]

Local statistics report a great number of cases of neurological diseases of unidentified cause. The purpose of this research was to determine the presence of viral agents in patients with affection of the central nervous system, in Zulia State, Venezuela. In different health centers throughout the state, we collected 129 randomized samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum from patients ranging from 1 day to 41 years of age, showing symptoms of CNS disease and whose bacteriological test resulted negative. The serum/CSF albumin ratio was determined to exclude contaminated CSF samples, thus 54 optimal samples were obtained for the research. We determined serum IgM and CSF IgG specific for Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE), Herpes simplex (HSV), Epstein Barr (EBV), Dengue, Rubella and Measles virus, through ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence techniques. Of the 54 samples studied, 33 (61.11%) were positive. %). The etiological agents implicated were VEE 14 cases (42.42%); HSV 11 cases (33.33%); EBV 5 cases (15.15%) and Dengue 3 cases (9.09%). We did not detect Rubella o Measles. Regarding the age distribution, the most affected group was that of children under 12 (83.34%). We analyzed the clinical manifestations and the CSF characteristics and did not find differences suggestive of an specific etiological diagnosis, even though certain signs could be considered early indications of CNS alterations due to viral causes. Our study shows that a large percentage of CNS affections of unknown etiology are produced by viral agents, indicating that in our region, most of this cases are not registered.